Earlier this year, indie legend Mac DeMarco released his most experimental project yet, an album titled One Wayne G consisting of demo songs from 2018-2023 that clocks in at almost 9 hours with 199 tracks. Each track is labeled numerically by date, with the occasional track with vocals having names. For newcomers, and even die hard fans, this album can seem like a daunting endeavor. To make it easier, I’ve put together a playlist on Spotify of the best that this album has to offer. Some of these demos had surfaced before on places like YouTube such as “20190724”, titled “Garbage Funk” by fans, and other tracks taken from Mac’s pandemic era CAM TONY streams. Most of these though are the first time fans have been given a chance to listen. There’s a large variety of sounds on this album, with some tracks feeling as though they could easily fit in previous albums like Here Comes the Cowboy or Five Easy Hot Dogs, and other tracks that experiment with genres Mac has never touched before. The ambient tracks were the most surprising, one having a cosmic feel with almost spaceship-like background noises, and another particularly haunting track sounding like something straight out of the Silent Hill video game series. “20200817 Proud True Toyota” is a personal favorite of mine, originating from another pandemic era stream, that is the most catchy and upbeat car advertisement you’ll ever hear. The somber and poignant track titled “20210220 Stratocaster” is perhaps the most beautiful song on the album, simply dedicated to a guitar. The possibility of most of these songs never seeing the light of day is a depressing thought, and that’s what’s so great about One Wayne G, an album full of so many hidden gems. I still recommend you listen to most of the tracks yourself, maybe on a road trip or while doing work, and find what you love. I hope you enjoy this condensed version of One Wayne G.
Here’s a link to the playlist!
The Best of One Wayne G Tracklist:
20200817 Proud True Toyota
20190724
20220202 2
20210220 Stratocaster
20190724 2
20191012 Fooled By Love
20180512
20201203
20180701
20200820 Turn My TV On
20190723
20191011 You Made The Bed
20200324
20200816 She Want The Sandwich
20200109
20221102 The Truth
20181212
20191229